Star Trek: The End Of A Mission
by Ru
Summary: Kirk's chronically overworked and his crew suddenly find themselves practically leaderless and on a supposedly boring mission that seems to be fast falling apart.
1. Default Chapter

Star Trek

Kirk/McCoy

Star Trek: The End Of A Mission

Usual Disclaimers: I own nothing.

This is one of my old fics I have finally decided to finish.

Captain Kirk stormed down the corridor. Supposedly he should have been starting shore leave. In some alternate dimension he would no doubt in fact be doing so. He was probably drinking in a beer garden, with the sunshine and some new friends to keep him company. Or he was having a BBQ next to a pool with lots of lovely ladies around. Possibly, he allowed, he was doing some small amount of work after which he was planning a night out with Bones and Scotty. In this reality, however, due to admiral Nogura, his normal boss, taking a (in Kirks considered opinion) very long and undeserved holiday with his family, he had been jumped on by various other admirals at the base, all wanting to use his high security clearance and experience in the field to be put to use, and why, he thought, are there so many damn admirals at this base anyway. Specifically all this meant that Kirk innocently arriving at the star base had suddenly been landed with an enormous amount of reports to write, most of which needed extensive and thereby time-consuming background research.

Due to Nogura's absence no-one seemed to know exactly how much work he was actually given and due to the rather unorthodox approach to his last mission, nobody seemed to care. It was he thought grumpily, not at all his fault, even if it had meant a restructuring of star fleets presence in the area. He had done the best he could with bad intelligence and very little support from Earth. For the moment though he was, he thought sourly, persona non-grata within star fleet, or at least this area of, at least until they desperately needed him again.

Nogura he thought may be a cold-hearted bastard, but, he was only one man and along with never seeming to especially care about paperwork he never severely over-worked Kirk. In fact he always seemed to know just how much he could handle. Suddenly Kirk had three new bosses all giving him huge amounts of work, none of which were inclined to listen when he tried to tell them that there was no possible way he could manage everything for the deadlines. In fact, to a man they simply told him that their work was vastly more important then anybody else's and that he was simply to prioritize. They had then gone ahead and given the impossible deadlines. In all, thought Kirk, it was even more unfortunate that apparently, other then seeming to hate him, the only thing all the admirals had in common seemed to be their utter distaste for each other.

Nogura might yell at him occasionally, okay a lot, he thought. But he knew how to use a man of Kirks particular talents and for the moment at least this wasn't behind a desk. Nogura never seemed to micro-manage him either, he would give him objectives and Kirk himself would determine how best to achieve them. Usually with many last minute changes too, he thought wryly. He didn't know these admirals and couldn't predict their responses the way he could with Nogura. One of them in particular, admiral Westwood had given him such detailed instructions he may just have well have done all the work himself.

Of course, Kirk didn't know it, but Nogura after many years of working with Kirk was just as good at anticipating Kirks reactions to a given situation. Nogura had also had many years of experience with Kirk's weaknesses, the main one being Kirks reaction to being micro-managed. The results of which always tended to be unfortunate, with a very memorable occasion at the academy whereby half his crew wouldn't speak to him for weeks.

There was no way he could possibly get any shore leave now, although he was very much in need of it; in fact Bones had as much as said as much at breakfast. Kirk brightened, now that he thought about it, Bones could make it all go away. Perhaps he could put him on medical leave for stress. After all if he weren't stressed before he started all this work he certainly would be afterwards and preventative medicine and all that. Kirk then sighed, he knew he would never really do it, he knew that most of the reports were in fact very important in their own way and he would never shirk his duty. Never mind how sadistic his bosses were. He Kirk would get this work done if he dropped dead whilst doing it, besides, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction. He directed a particularly vicious scowl at the direction of the lift thereby terrifying ensign Chekov who happened to be standing there. Kirk smiled. It was petty, but sometimes the perks of being a captain could really cheer a person up.


	2. Nearly getting interesting

Chapter 2

Disclaimers: I own none of this.

"So, how was your shore-leave Spock? I'll bet it wasn't half as fun as mine, in fact I'll bet you a drink that you went to some sort of mouldy old lecture."

Dr McCoy greeted amicably.

"In fact Doctor it would not even be a gamble, since I believe that you were present at the same lecture I was. I am glad to hear that your sudden lapse in memory did not impair your excursions to the nearest drinking facilities"

McCoy glared

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Spock quirked an eyebrow,

"I merely commented on your assertion that you had had a good time and noting that your shore-leaves inevitably involve heavy usage of alcohol, I deduced that..."

"Good lord Spock, you'd take all the fun out of a ham sandwich."

McCoy interrupted.

"Doctor I fail to see why my logical answer to your question should necessitate any kind of comparison with sandwiches, ham or otherwise."

"Never mind talking about blasted sandwiches, where is he?"

McCoy interrupted.

"Doctor if I knew the exact whereabouts of the captain I would not be spending my time sitting in a bar with you."

"Why you green-blooded talking robot, its not my fault you haven't been programmed to have fun and to appreciate fine company."

McCoy smirked. After only 10 minutes of the good doctors company, Spock took matters into his own hands and opened up his communicator

"Spock to enterprise"

"Enterprise here sir, what can I do for you"?

Came the response of Ensign Jackson.

"I simply wish to ascertain the whereabouts of Captain Kirk, Ensign."

"He's in his quarters sir, what you like to be put through?"

"Indeed Ensign."

"Let me talk to him"

McCoy interrupted grabbing the communicator, Spock let a small sigh escape and relinquished his hold.

"As you wish Doctor."

"I'll bet he's forgotten you, not that that would be hard. After all, boring is as boring does."

Captain Kirk was in the middle of a report and had forgotten about both of them. Initially he tried to beg off, stating overwork, but after lots of cajoling by McCoy and the assertion that Spock was in danger of being killed in a freak accident involving forks if he was left alone with him, Kirk decided to have an hour off, if only to save Spock from McCoy. Kirk grinned to himself; at least he would be able to get Spock's input into some of these reports. He'd really missed him these last couple of weeks, in fact he'd missed all his bridge crew. Thinking about it, Kirk realized that what he'd actually missed was people, talking to admirals was about the only social interaction he'd been involved in since the ship had arrived for upgrades and shore leave several weeks ago. Scowling at the thought he walked around a corner straight into a running Ensign Chekov.

"Oomph!"

"I'm sorry sir"

Chekov said, clearly terrified of an irate Captain. Chekov had been nominally in charge of the Enterprise on her refit, since Scotty and Kirk were far too busy and pretty much everyone else had gone on shore leave. Kirk scowled.

"Is there a red alert that I wasn't told about?"

Kirk asked

"No sir, I'm sorry sir, I'm late for my shift."

Chekov straightened himself up

"Well shouldn't you get going then?"

Kirk asked amused. He had frequently wondered about Chekov over the last few weeks, he seemed to have more accidents then anyone he knew, and he always seemed to be rushing somewhere. Which was strange as being in dry dock meant that there wasn't actually much to do around the ship except in engineering.

"Yes sir, sorry"

Chekov repeated. Why do I always have to make a fool of myself in front of the Captain, he thought. He must think I'm an idiot, I doubt he considers me Enterprise material at all anymore. I'm a failure, he thought morosely.

Chekov dealt with and forgotten, Kirk eventually made his way to the bar that Bones and Spock were frequenting. He quickly found his officers, as the pub was very nearly empty.

"Hello Bones, Spock. How was shore leave?"

Spock and McCoy stopped their discussion to grin at him, or at least one of them did, the other merely looked relieved.

"Jim"

"Captain"

They acknowledged simultaneously.

"I take it the Jim Kirk world didn't experience any shore leave"

Commented McCoy on seeing the bags under his eyes. Kirk groaned.

"You have no idea!"

Spock looked concerned

"You haven't been on shore leave?"

He enquired.

"It's been awful Spock I've been snowed under with these reports and paperwork, every time I finish something I get another three or four new reports to work on, I've barely been off the ship. Most of them aren't even important."

"I am sorry to hear that you did not have a restful break Captain."

"He means that he thinks you look like shit too."

Inserted McCoy snidely.

Several hours and pints later a relaxed Kirk was just about caught up on his friends' news and had pretty much forgotten about his work only to hear his communicator go off.

"Sir, sorry to bother you, but admiral Westwood is asking about a report on cargo storage?"

Said Ensign Chekov. Kirk swore softly, he'd not even started it.

"Erm, tell him I'll get it to him in a couple of hours, Ensign and would you organize a beam-up in a few minutes?"

"Yes Sir. Chekov out."

Was the reply. Kirk briefly looked amused at being dismissed. He looked at his friends

"Fancy writing a report on grain storage anyone?" He asked.


	3. Chapter 3

Star trek

Disclaimers: I own nothing and nobody. Am just having a laugh.

"Ok, I've had enough of this"

Announced Kirk to an empty room as he threw down the transcripts. Time to turn the whole situation to his advantage. Something he should have done at the start and would have done if he had been left time to think.

"I have three bosses, three very evil and vindictive bosses. None of who would talk to the others, he mused. He started to smile, a smile that would have been recognized by his whole crew, as trouble with a capital T. Their captain had an idea; a very evil, unprincipled idea that would usually mean chaos would soon follow behind. Little though they knew it, they were all doomed, especially a very particular doctor, currently going by the name McCoy.

One week later.

"I'm sorry, you told them what?"

Said McCoy

"I think I need to sit down, possibly I should laughing about now. I'm not though. In fact I think I'm in shock."

"Well you shouldn't be drinking this then."

Said Kirk reasonably as he stole Bone's whisky.

"I need a drink."

Said McCoy.

"Too late. Anyway, most people would be pleased to have so much of my attention. I happen to think I'm a pretty good catch."

"Oh god, I'm apparently marrying a lunatic. What would my dear old mother say?"

"She's dead Bones."

Replied Kirk.

"But, I'm sure she would have loved me. In fact, talking about relatives"

Kirk continued shiftily.

"I happened to hear from one of my aunts, who is in the neighbourhood so to speak. Anyway she heard about our engagement and wanted to meet you. Which was nice of her."

He added helpfully.

"Shouldn't you have asked the groom first, before announcing the marriage to the galaxy?"

"Now Bones, it will only be for a little while, I'll even let you dump me if you like. Anyway I see you more in the role of bride really."

Kirk smiled nicely.

"Oh god."

Replied McCoy.


End file.
